Backcountry Pilot

[Zzz]

You hear a lot these days about how general aviation is losing its participant base, and how the younger generation doesn't seem as interested. I keep reading these blurbs and quotes from AOPA spokespeople who seem to realize that appealing to the younger generations is the key to maintaining our flying privileges in the future, but in this modern age where a kid's impression of aviation is fighter jets or riding a 737 from terminal to terminal, where does the passion enter in?

In the so-called "golden age" flight was new, not well understood by the general public, and so few people had been desensitized by commercial air travel that the mystery and romance of flying airplanes persisted another 50-60 years, but it seems to have diminished in the last 20-30 years. Blame litigation, bad economies, whatever you like, but as a kid I had no knowledge of those things and flying airplanes was at the top of my list. No one in my family was an active pilot when I was kid. My dad was raised with a flying dad -- granddad had a Cessna 140A and later a Commanche. I only found my way into aviation after I went off to college, and my dad had more free time and money to get back into flying. He got into flying ultralights, and then I did too a few years later. It was inexpensive, and reeked of freedom as we had Part 103 planes, no radio, and no windscreens. I soloed with not nearly enough training to operate safely as NORDO in a GA environment, but I did not know that then, and it was fun.

Years later I got my Private certificate and learned how complex the world of aviation can be, but also that everything that seems complex or overly contrived is actually pretty practical and necessary, and my initial impression of being overwhelmed is gone. I'm getting off track here with telling my life story, so I'll try to reel it back in:

Why aren't more young people attracted to aviation?

The obvious possibilities include: Cheaper, more attainable distractions like video games and the Internet, and socialist pyschotropic government cheese additives, but when's the last time a pilot was someone's role model? Traditional sports and the associated role models have such intense coverage that it makes aviation seem like an exotic and distant lost art from another continent. What's the point? Has the long-revered archetype of the pilot gathered too much dust?

EAA Young Eagles does a good job in my opinion, but they're serving the kids who've already found their way to the airport or are being encouraged my their parents. Red Bull Air Race is bringing back some of that passion and excitement for speed, but it's unattainable even for people who are already pilots, not to mention the guys they might be cheering on are in their 40's and 50's. Kids might as well be watching a lightsaber battle for all its relevance.

What do you guys think? What do we do now?

Are more pilots joining the ranks? Do your friends ever show interest in learning to fly? Rarely does one of my friends who I share my adventures with follow up and ask "How can I do that?" Usually it's something more along the lines of "Aren't you ever afraid you're going to die?"

Which begs the question: Is the problem the public's perception of aviation as an extreme sport? Anxiety at dying in a plane crash is constantly drummed into our psyche by news and media. Has the love affair soured because nowadays we're so constantly aware of 200 people all dying at once in fiery crashes, whereas in the 1930's we weren't saturated with news media and the risk just didn't compute?

I believe whatever is at fault here, whatever has caused this decades-old recession in passion for flight, is not going away. It's not political in my opinion, so please don't go there. Aviation regulation just hasn't changed enough in the last 50 years to make personal flight unattainable or unpalatable to the everyman. Even with rising costs attributed to lawsuits and insurance and all those nasty things, getting a pilot certificate and even buying a really cheap bird are still within the financial grasp of the lower middle class. I believe it's a cultural disconnect, a redirection of our focus and interest.

Perhaps...the advent of the personal computer is to blame?

[mountainmatt offline]

The short answer; it's not cool.

We live in a tech world and flying something 40-50-60-70 years old doesn't appeal to kids these days. They grow up with computers, cell phones, and the internet, where everything they want they can have. Now take that youngster and make him cough up $100+ a week for a flying lesson and they will quickly loose interest. Kids also have the attention span of a puppy, and discipline and sacrifice isn't the American way to much of these kids. Getting the newest shoot-them-up video games so they can hang out with their friends and talk trashy to their Jr High girlfriends is so much cooler. The simple romance of flying has died to boring jets and a comfy couch where they can fly any plane they want on their new gaming console.

Or maybe Zane, we're just to old to understand.

[whee offline]

Or maybe Zane, we're just to old to understand.

that's it!!! you guys over 30 will never understand

[patrol guy offline]

Zane, I think Greg and I may have stumbled into finding the next generation of pilots.

It's the young Amish!
http://vimeo.com/12396804

And like you mentioned, these kids have not been distracted by computers and video games. These guys have the passion. After one week of them telling their friends about their rides, we now have a long list of young Amish waiting for our next ridge top landing party, so they can go too.

Another thing, they were fascinated by the "home-built" part of Greg's S7. I could see their gears going around thinking that they could build one of these themselves. jg

[N131CP offline]

I think people are different now - for whatever reason.

Last January I was sitting in a coach window seat on a widebody Airbus coming back from a vacation in Ireland. It was broad daylight on a beautiful clear day over the Greenland icecap, and I was of course glued to the window. The flight attendant comes over and asks me to pull down my windowshade because the light from my window is disturbing the people who are watching the movie - some asinine hollywood comedy crap. I look around and I'm the ONLY person on the plane with the shade up. The Greenland icecap - at 30,000 ft on a beautiful clear winter's day. That's f#%*ed up, man...

I do some pretty cool flying in my Maule - at least I think so. Idaho, California to the Georgia coast and back, the mountains and high deserts in California and Nevada, Baja. Last year I flew the entire Gulf coast at 500ft AGL from Apallachacola, Fl to the east side of the Mississipii Delta - all those remote sandy beachs that are now under that oil - an amazing experience. NOBODY cares. Nobody's interested. Nobody wants to come along on trips or even see the amazing photographs. Flying makes people's eyes glaze over.

Like I say - people are different now...

[hicountry offline]

Z, whee, and matt...I agree with you all. I've been the YE coordinator for EAA chapter 608 for about 12 years now..it's neat to inspire young folks about aviation, but it doesn't happen very often. Yes they like the free ride but very few follow through..for whatever the reason. It's really good to see the ones who make something of it though...so we keep on flying them!
HC

[Vick offline]

It doesn't help that rural, small-town airfields continue to disappear, and I'm afraid that trend will only increase if GA withers further. Along with them goes the culture that invites a kid that rides in on a bike to hang around and maybe wash a few planes in exchange for a little flight time here and there. For that matter, how many kids these days use their bmx bikes as a real form of transportation? I used to cover miles on mine, whithout a helmet no less!

I don't think it's necessarily the perceived risk - everything these days is x-games this and extreme that. But as our culture continues to shift to (sub)urban centers and hi-tech, recreation shifts with it. It used to be a pretty normal thing to go fishing and camping with your dad growing up - now how many kids get that experience?

[Bushcaddy offline]

Believe it or not I think many more people would be interesetd in flying but they see it as being out of their reach. They think it's a rich man's game...I know I always did. After I bought a house near our local airport, it took me 4 years to go down and see what was up/w those guys. One thing led to another and I got my license. I had no idea, prior to that, that I could buy a Cessna 150 for $20,000 and that the world of homebuilt aviation even existed. Most people I work with, who now know I'm building an airplane have the idea that it is amazingly complicated. They are shocked when I explain how easy it really is as long as you have the time to commit to it. Education is the key...most people simply don't know.

[dirtstrip offline]

I guess Momma's don't want their babies to grow up to be pilots. These kids that are rushed through everything during their school years have precious little time to just be kids with time on their hands for hanging around with an uncle or a grandpa at the hangar and develop an interest in flying. There are some mentors and fathers on this site that take kids along and they should be commended. The role models presented to the rest of these kids are mostly sports figures or friends with the necessary latest cell phone/i-gadget/fashion accessory. It might not be what most parents wanted for their kids but it is what their parents generation has commercialized to them. New cars, sex and the latest cell phones, just turn on the tv. Our mothers wouldn't have even let us watch todays commercials but thats what is sold to our kids. No generation of kids has been so overwhelmed by choices presented to them in entertainment and how to spend their free time and money. They could use an interested adult as a mentor. Take a kid along. I make it a point to and they can't get enough.

With that on the table, where is the commercial effort by cessna and piper to build a future flock of pilots ? They don't want to. Litigation has just about taken small piston engine planes out of the market. These companies are going to eventually be left with just corporate business aircraft and I admit it, they look stuffy and boring to me too. The home built thing is too slow for the masses and can't give the instant fun that kids have come to expect and that just leaves the sport pilot market and this old aircraft fleet to work with. Still, both markets are within reach for most that want to plan ahead or work for the day they can afford to make the choice between spending recreational dollars for motor homes, Harley's or having their own plane, provided its not presented to them as some bucket list item for retirement. The biggest plus there is to selling flying to an already recreational minded generation is that the skies over the US is the largest uncrowded playground left in this country but it will be no good to them without places to land. While we contemplate selling flying to these kids, the free sky and the landing sites that make it valuable need to be protected by us and then presented in a way that they will want to use them. There lies the future of aviation.

[Vick offline]

Believe it or not I think many more people would be interesetd in flying but they see it as being out of their reach. They think it's a rich man's game...I know I always did. After I bought a house near our local airport, it took me 4 years to go down and see what was up/w those guys. One thing led to another and I got my license. I had no idea, prior to that, that I could buy a Cessna 150 for $20,000 and that the world of homebuilt aviation even existed. Most people I work with, who now know I'm building an airplane have the idea that it is amazingly complicated. They are shocked when I explain how easy it really is as long as you have the time to commit to it. Education is the key...most people simply don't know.

^^ And that right there is why I think they missed the mark when the excluded 150/2s from light sport eligibility.

[Jaerl offline]

I think a lot of the problem is video games. I bought a Microsoft Flight Simulator when I was learning to fly and I asked my step son if the wanted to use it. He said it was boring, I guess trying to land a J3 on a skyscraper isn't as fun as wasting people and monsters with hot cartoon babes running around in hotpants.

[jomac offline]

u guys are so right on with the current situation. the kids now don't really" get "having some real fun and accomplishment. unless u are talking to a motor-head's kid who maybe races dirt bikes and such, they dont even know what horsepower is! they are so distracted with other stuff. cell phones have become as big and time-consuming as the ultimate waste of time, TV.

getting the pilot ranks to grow will be damn tough. motor-head kids get it, not many else. back quite some time ago, i raced motor-cycles for a living. lived in our truck and had a wornout enclosed trailer for all our spares and bikes. if we won, we ate and lived well. we camped all the time, raced an average of 3-4 times a week in so. cal. as a very young guy, u got tough or died real fast! even back then, some of the spoiled kids there would show up and give us crap about our beat-up and worn equipment, and we made sure to school them and take their cash...most of those kids never amounted to much, but they did look cool!

once that era was ever, no, never made it to the big time, but had a blast trying! taught me a lot. getting back home and buying a business or two of my own, has led to many great opportunities, both in the industry and with meeting some really cool aviation folks. after getting my ticket some 11 yrs ago, i've learned a lot again. one of the best things aviation has to offer is the fact that it is always a challenge. to learn to fly and spend time and $ pounding paved airstrips is ok for some, but the real fun and adventure and challenge is truly the back-country. something tells me that if we could expose more folks somehow to the back-country, the ranks would grow. not as easy as it sounds, but doable.

ive had some friends and customers actually give up flying, being somewhat bored with it. none of these folks have ever been in the frank,selway,or even over to smiley creek. i realize flying is different things to diff. people. having some high-powered toys for a long time, it takes the back-country to get my attention! finding a way is gonna be tough!

part of the problem is the training for sure. there are only a handful of instructors that i would trust in the back-country for sure. most av. schools simply don't do this type of flying, short of some simple short and soft stuff on pavement. back when dad would fly us to the big lost river, land on the road, taxi off into the weeds and take us fishin' till dark, i thought everyone did that stuff! we had a blast in his stinson and his super call-air with 80 amazing horse-power. in and out of loon, both upper and lower and the falconberry, with those same 80 horses. hard work and flyin' seemed to go hand in hand at our house. no computers or cell phones for sure, and not much time for TV...we need to figure this out!

[Rhyppa offline]

Zane, I think I touched on what I feel the problem is when we were flying this week. The people that I see that really truly fly a lot and enjoy it a lot and stick with it long term are those that use their planes for a purpose. And most of those purposes relate to the outdoors- be it hunting, fishing, camping in the backcountry, accessing remote hiking or skiing, digging clams, etc etc. And we are now a good generation and a half removed from kids that do all the outdoor stuff. Part of it is all the other stuff kids can do, not the least of which is grade school high school sports, which have become all consuming year round events. Quite frankly I think the sports is a lot of BS and doesn't do nearly as much for the development of a child as some would claim. Add to all that the fact that we are a much more urban society that a mere generation ago. Urban kids don't get exposed to the outdoor stuff that small town country kids do. Finally, but maybe not the least important, is that we don't have aviation "hero's" any more. First we had the Wrights, then the barnstomers followed by lucky Lindy, and then all the pilots that returned from WW2. Those guys served as the hero's for many generations of kids growing up. Maybe someone like Captain Sully can re-ignite some of the pilot heroism. Other than him I can't really think of a high profile known far and wide pilot in the last 30 - 40 years. The same problem exists in the fishing/hunting outfitter businesses. The age of their clients is getting up there, and there just isn't much of a new generation to take their place. The solution? short of getting kids out of the city I don't have one. Russ

[lowflybye offline]

This about sums it all up... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOtEQB-9tvk

[Scary offline]

I think the problem is computers and their ability to grant instant gratification. Kids can just pop in a game a be anything they want, with no effort. But I'm lucky that my 16yr old daughter and 13 yr old son can't wait to start flying and skydiving. some guys at the local airport are starting a flying club with a 150 and a glider and both kids will be members this summer. I will try and do my part and drag a few of their friends along with them.

[denalipilot offline]

For a while I used to give intro-flight gift certificates when I needed to give a gift. Aero Tech on Merrill Field sold them, and for $50 you could give someone the chance to get up with a CFI over the Inlet. Wait for just the right day to redeem it, and you could fly around the practice area with everything from Denali, to the Chugach, to the Aleutian volcanoes in view. As far as I know, no one that I ever gave one of those to ever used, it, so I stopped giving them. These were even people who I had taken flying, and who had expressed an interest in aviation. I think the Mentor role that you read about in the front of AOPA Pilot is key. An introductory flight is nice, but the process must still feel pretty daunting, even to those people that are already intrigued.

On the other hand, I've got a few friends that own air taxis in Alaska, and each year it seems like there are enthusiastic young CloudDancers, fresh from wherever, who are hot to build their 500 hours and go fly a 172 in Bethel to get their start. These folks are fueling planes, degreasing bellies, working hard to realize their dream. I can't speak about elsewhere, but I think Alaska still attracts that bootstrap mentality.

Theoretically, if every current, licensed, pilot mentored one single person through their PPL, we'd hold our ranks, wouldn't we?

-DP

[oldtech offline]

I have to admit I've pondered the same question. Many valid points here but I agree with Bushcaddy that it is percieved as a rich mans sport. But people are different and some love flying, some are terrified, and a whole lot are indifferent.
Giving someone their first ride is an opportunity to introduce them to flying, and I always try to make it on a calm evening and don't do any tricks unless they love amusement park rides and ask for it. A great ride or 2 goes a long way to fostering the desire to fly.
We, as pilots, are really the front line promoters.

[Grassstrippilot offline]

Zane, I think I touched on what I feel the problem is when we were flying this week. The people that I see that really truly fly a lot and enjoy it a lot and stick with it long term are those that use their planes for a purpose. And most of those purposes relate to the outdoors- be it hunting, fishing, camping in the backcountry, accessing remote hiking or skiing, digging clams, etc etc. And we are now a good generation and a half removed from kids that do all the outdoor stuff. Part of it is all the other stuff kids can do, not the least of which is grade school high school sports, which have become all consuming year round events. Quite frankly I think the sports is a lot of BS and doesn't do nearly as much for the development of a child as some would claim. Add to all that the fact that we are a much more urban society that a mere generation ago. Urban kids don't get exposed to the outdoor stuff that small town country kids do.

Yesterday I saw a news reporter talking about Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old sailing around the world by herself. The question was whether or not the parents were irresponsible for letting her do it. One even called it "child neglect". I guess my mom was probably neglectful when she held her end of the bargin and let me start flying lessons at 15. (The bargin was I could do what I wanted when I earned my Eagle Scout Award.) Luckily I worked for my instructor and he taught me for free so long as I provided the aircraft. Hauling pipe and herding cattle luckily was enough to cover the cost, plus working at the FBO. I'm not saying that all teenagers are the type to let loose on the openseas, but there are some that have good heads on their shoulders and are responsible. Luckily for me my parents thought I responsible enough to be flying.

I totally agree all that has been said here. Kids are so removed from the outdoors and so used to instant gratification. It drives me nuts that I've become more "urbanized" as well. We can't wait to get back to our Idaho country roots. We don't want to raise our kids in a subdivision where kids are bored and glued to their tvs, gameboys, computers, etc. Until then, we are trying to make the effort to get our kids to the great outdoors early and often in hopes that they will have an upbringing that resembles the one my parents gave to me...for which I am truely thankful.

As for aviation, we are the ambassadors and the frontline for promoting GA. I don't know the answer, but know that I have to take any chance that comes along to promote it and help people understand it. A couple of months ago I took my first parapalegic flying. A total stranger, she found me on Facebook and out of the blue asked if I'd take her for a ride. Now she is looking into applying to Ableflight for a scholarship to learn to fly. How cool is that? Hopefully one at a time we can preserve/save GA for the future.

[Jaerl offline]

Abby Sunderland was rescued by a French fishing boat. I heard the crap about it being child neglect by letting her try to sail around the world by herself. I admire and respect her parents to have raised a child that would have the ambition and spirit to do this. Abby will grow into an amazing person because of experiences like this.

I was always hard on my kids and made them work for what they got. They didn't like it but I have children that are self sufficient and can take care of themselves. I think a lot of parents today shield their kids instead of forcing them to face their problems and that does nothing but hurt the kids. I know when I screwed up my parents would be all over me and force me to make it right. And I was always in trouble! I didn't like it then but I am glad they raised me that way.

Jerry

[hardtailjohn offline]

Lots of good points here already.... but what I see is that the kids can't even get anywhere near a plane anymore, even if they want to! Between all the homeland security BS and the few "bad apples" that make many very wary of young people, it's almost impossible for that kid that wants to "bum a ride" to get close enough to do so......
John